Penske Automotive

Penske Automotive Group, Inc., an international automotive retailer, has formed a joint venture with Andrea Mantellini (and family), operator of a BMW/MINI dealer group located in Bologna, Italy. The newly formed joint venture intends to acquire and operate dealerships in northern Italy. Mantellini will manage day-to-day operations of the business, bringing his local expertise and successful business acumen. “I am very happy to partner with Penske Automotive Group as we look to expand the existing business in a market with many growth opportunities,” said Mantellini.

The joint venture has acquired the Mariani BMW/MINI dealership in Monza, Italy, a suburb of Milan. The Mariani acquisition provides an ideal opportunity for Penske Automotive Group to enter the Milan market. The greater Milan area is among the world’s top 20 and Europe’s top 10 business and financial centers with the highest average income rates in Italy.

“The joint venture signed by Penske Automotive Group with Andrea Mantellini and his family represents a milestone in our dealer development strategy. In a difficult market and economic situation, this agreement is a clear sign of BMW Group Italia’s intention to keep investing in the future to be a leader both in terms of customer satisfaction and in the premium segment market. We are happy that an important partner like Penske Automotive Group decided to invest in our country for the first time in its history, choosing BMW and MINI brands,” said Franz Jung, President and CEO of BMW Italia S.p.A.

Penske Automotive Group President Rob Kurnick said, “Creating a joint venture to acquire and operate dealerships with a strong local partner, such as Mantellini, is an attractive way for our Company to expand its presence into the Italian market. Mantellini is an innovative retailer and will help us identify potential opportunities to expand and grow our joint venture. We are thrilled with the opportunity to represent the BMW and MINI brands in the greater Milan area.”

About Penske Automotive

Penske Automotive Group, Inc., headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, operates 335 retail automotive franchises, representing 42 different brands and 29 collision repair centers. Penske Automotive, which sells new and previously owned vehicles, finance and insurance products and replacement parts, and offers maintenance and repair services on all brands it represents, has 169 franchises in 17 states and Puerto Rico and 166 franchises located outside the United States, primarily in the United Kingdom. Penske Automotive is a member of the Fortune 500 and Russell 2000 and has approximately 16,000 employees.

Caution Concerning Forward Looking Statements

Statements in this press release involve forward-looking statements, including forward-looking statements regarding Penske Automotive Group, Inc.’s future sales potential and outlook. Actual results may vary materially because of risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. These risks and uncertainties include, among others: economic conditions generally, conditions in the credit markets and changes in interest rates, adverse conditions affecting a particular manufacturer, including the adverse impact to the vehicle and parts supply chain due to natural disasters such as the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in March 2011; changes in consumer credit availability, the outcome of legal and administrative matters, and other factors over which management has limited control. These forward-looking statements should be evaluated together with additional information about Penske Automotive’s business, markets, conditions and other uncertainties, which could affect Penske Automotive’s future performance. These risks and uncertainties are addressed in Penske Automotive’s Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011, and its other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). This press release speaks only as of its date, and Penske Automotive disclaims any duty to update the information herein.

DealerRater, the world’s premier car dealer review web site, just announced the winners of the 2012 Dealer of the Year Award Program. Through this award program, 37 manufacturer categories were represented and MINI of Warwick, located in Warwick, Rhode Island was named 2012 MINI Dealer of the Year for the State of Rhode Island and Eastern Region.

MINI of Warwick not only was named Top Dealer in the Eastern Region this year, they have consecutively remained award winners for four years, along with obtaining the title of Number One Dealer in the Entire United States (2008.) As a Certified Dealer with a 4.9 rating (out of 5) on Dealer Rater with over 100+ reviews, the dealership is provided a unique opportunity to contact reviewers publicly or privately with the intention to resolve any expressed issues, and correct their clients concerns.

By encouraging their customers to provide feedback on their dealer experience, MINI of Warwick has been able to consistently set the bar higher in customer satisfaction while embracing and the opinions of their clients and the integrity of their unbiased reviews. Thank you to the Warwick MINI team members for their unparalleled commitment to excellence, thus making this award a reality.

The team at MINI of Warwick is dedicated to making their client’s motoring experience enjoyable.

In order to understand how the Scottsdale 101 Auto Collection came to be, one must start at the beginning – in Northern Ohio in the mid-1950s where a young boy named Roger Penske fell in love with racing. 60 years later, in a beautiful eight-page publication, the DuPont Registry invites readers to take a tour of the Scottsdale 101 Auto Collection as well as a brief look back at the life and legacy of Roger Penske.

Over the last 10 years, the L-shaped facility at the base of the McDowell Mountains has established itself as one of the largest automotive dealership complexes in the world. Home to 13 of the most luxurious brands and a museum that houses the legendary Roger Penske’s racing cars and motorsports memories, the automotive theme park has evolved into a tourist attraction for Scottsdale visitors. Retailing Acura, Aston Martin, Audi, Bentley, BMW, Bugatti, Jaguar, Lamborghini, MINI, Porsche, Land Rover, Range Rover, Rolls Royce, and Volkswagen, the Collection’s striking selection of vehicles is the perfect inventory to surround the paved, quarter-mile racing-style road and test track that curves along the complex. However, if you cant make it to the facility in Scottsdale to see the attractions for yourself, this free download is the next best thing. In fact, even if you have been to the facility you wont want to miss out on this visually stimulating publication celebrating the Scottsdale 101 Auto Collection and the man who built it – Roger Penske.

Can AJ Allmendinger make the grade as the new driver of Penske Racing’s No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Dodge in 2012?

If tenacity, desire and will–together with great talent–have anything to do with it, the Penske Racing team has a new winner to replace departed Kurt Busch, the 2004 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion and 24-race winner.

The 30-year-old driver from Los Gatos, CA–currently residing in the Mooresville, NC area with wife Lynne–has had grand successes in auto racing but in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series, the grand stage of stock car racing, he’s had a difficult time, never having the stability that’s essential to succeeding.

Allmendinger, named for A.J. Foyt Jr by his race-loving parents, first showed his innate skills in karting. I remember watching him at the Stars of Karting event at Bryan Herta’s track outside Las Vegas in late 2000, where he was a member of Paul Tracy’s team. Allmendinger did not win that event, but he did secure two IKF karting titles that helped propel him to the Barber Dodge Pro Series.

The Dinger won the Barber Dodge championship in his rookie 2002 season, putting a wheel wrong only once, in the Road America race. I recall watching the poor Barber Dodge mechanics digging dirt from inside his stricken race car and labeling it “Mount Allmendinger,” with flag affixed and all.

Allmendinger went to New Zealand as a Team USA Scholarship winner in 2002 and scored one pole and four top-four results flying the Team USA colors. From there he conquered the 2003 Toyota Atlantic championship, at that time the longest-lived ladder championship on American shores, winning Rookie of the Year honors simultaneously as he drove for Carl Russo’s RuSport Racing.

Both the team and Allmendinger graduated to the Champ Car World Series in 2004, and the driver again took Rookie of the Year honors, thanks to a run of six top-six results as the season came to its close; he beat out Briton Justin Wilson for the award. Wilson became Allmendinger’s teammate in 2005 but in June of 2006, RuSport replaced the Californian with Cristiano da Matta, the 2002 CART champion recently returned from Formula 1.

Forsythe Championship Racing quickly picked up The Dinger and he rewarded them with three consecutive race wins and a total of five overall in the 2006 season. And then Team Red Bull, for whom Allmendinger should have been driving in F1–instead of Scott Speed–came calling with a lucrative offer to go to Cup.

Allmendinger started his NASCAR career late in 2006 in the Craftsman Truck Series, where he drove for Bill Davis Racing, making three starts and earning a best finish of fifth–in his second race at Talladega Superspeedway.

He drove the No. 84 Sprint Cup Red Bull Toyota entry, beginning full-time in 2007, but it was a learning experience for both team and driver. He did much of the “Car of Tomorrow” grunt work as the season progressed and ran some select Truck races for Toyota as he learned the big differences between open wheel and NASCAR trucks and race cars.

Eventually, Allmendinger got canned from the Red Bull squad in favor of Speed–who was released a couple of years later after his own sub-par results. The two-time former open wheel champion eventually landed at Richard Petty Motorsports after it merged with Gillett Evernharm Motorsports following the 2008 season.

Allmendinger’s best Cup season is the one just ended, where he finished 15th for the year, just three places from the possibility of making the Chase for the Sprint Cup NASCAR playoffs. RPM put Greg Erwin on the pit box starting with the 2011 Brickyard 400 and that pairing led to Allmendinger’s late-season surge of six top-10 results.

No doubt Allmendinger’s skills in working with his new crew chief influenced Roger Penske and Tim Cindric when it was time to choose who would succeed Busch after their six-year run together.

Cindric and Allmendinger got together before the close of the year to talk about their new liaison in Cup racing and how they got to this point, what it means and where they go from here. Not only do they have a new driver in Allmendinger, but Penske Racing needed to secure a new crew chief for the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Dodge and chose to promote Todd Gordon from the Nationwide ranks.

Cindric knows it’s a tough row to hoe, with so many changes occurring within the organization since the final race at Homestead-Miami Speedwy. “To go through [these changes] and have a different crew chief and a different driver going into next year, when it really wasn’t the plan starting the year,” that’s going to be tough for the team.

They’re also–as is every NASCAR Sprint Cup team–dealing with the intricacies of changing from carburetors to electronic fuel injection for fuel delivery on the Dodge engines, so they need both driver and crew chief that are used to making informed decisions on the fly.

“We certainly wanted to be sure that we made the right decision,” Cindric said, “and sometimes you need more time to try and understand what the landscape (ahead) looks like.”

With the volatility of Richard Petty Motorsports, which lost the No. 43’s Best Buy sponsorship to Roush Fenway Racing after the close of the year, Allmendinger was relieved to land at a group as stable as Penske Racing after “the things I”ve been up against basically my whole five years in the Sprint Cup Series,” Allmendinger related. “To find an organization that has stability and obviously the whole Penske organization has a ton of stability and great sponsors, walking through the shop, just the way everything is laid out and presented is absolutely amazing and something I’d never seen before,” he allowed.

Allmendinger never expected to be in this situation after the race at Homestead; he fully expected to remain with RPM in the coming season. “It wasn’t something that, for me, it was easily made,” he said of the decision to ask for his release from RPM in order to join Penske Racing. “I love the race team, my guys over at Richard Petty Motorsports, and just felt like we’ve built such good chemistry over the last four to five months of the season, to get to this point was a tough challenge.

“But at the same point, looking at an organization and where I”m going and the people that surround it, also made the decision a little bit easier because I knew that this was a great place to be,” he said of Penske Racing. “I’m still trying to get my head wrapped around it,” he said of the quick change of venues. “As tough as the decision was to make, I’m happy to be here.”

With Speed Weeks at Daytona less than a month and a half away, “I think that AJ is really going to lean on Brad (teammate Keselowski) to try and understand wht it takes to move into this organization and be successful,” Cindric pondered, “and I think Brad is committed as a teammate to help him get up to speed as soon as possible because he’s certainly shown that he’s committed to making that happen. There’s really no better place to do that than Daytona, where you’ve got to work together from the beginning.”

Cindric and Roger Penske had many choices in the merry-go-round that is the driver marketplace at the end of each season. “We had to look at potential,” Cindric

admitted. “I think that we considered virtually everybody that was out there and made sure that we did our due diligence to try and understand if there was anything in the landscape that we didn’t know or that wasn’t obvious,” he said.

“AJ was someone we had talked to over the years but he really wasn’t somebody that we considered until really almost the 11th hour. There was noise about the fact that they might not be able to make things work (at RPM). And when we sat down and looked at the guys that were available and at AJ – the on-track performance, if you look at it, there’s nobody there that has a better progression through his career. When you look at the slope of the curve there with the way his statistics are, certainly no one has that type of slope.”

And so AJ Allmendinger goes from one legend’s lair (Richard Petty) to another’s, Roger Penske. He realizes that this opportunity–much like the one he accepted in working with Forsythe Championship Racing back in 2006–offers him the chance to show just how good he can be in a Penske Dodge.

“I’m going to be smiling showing up to the racetrack every weekend,” Allmendinger said. “This is what I love to do and if I wasn’t smiling, I shouldn’t be driving race cars. It’s going to be pretty special and to have Mr Penske just around the racetrack talking to me, just being able to be around him, it’s more of an honor to drive for him. I love the history of racing in general and obviously, Mr Penske has a rich history in racing. It’s going to be just fun being at the racetrack, being a part of his organization and being around him more than anything. That’s something I really look forward to.”

Last year, the 30-year-old Allmendinger had 10 top-10 finishes and was 15th in points driving Richard Petty’s No. 43 car.

The move, announced Wednesday, takes Penske back to his open-wheel roots.

Allmendinger won the open-wheel Barber Dodge Pro Series title in 2002, the Toyota Atlantics championship in 2003 and was the 2004 rookie of the year in the now defunct Champ Car series. In 2005, he won five races and was third in Champ Car in points. He joined the Cup circuit in 2007.

Busch won two races, took three poles and was one of 12 drivers to compete in the season-ending chase. Two weeks ago, after six bumpy seasons, Busch and Penske parted ways.

It was February 1965 and the then general manager of a Philadelphia Chevrolet dealership had been offered the opportunity to become the store’s owner. But in order for that to happen, Penske would have to give up what drew him to Chevy in the first place: racing.

His decision back then — to end his race-car driving days and put on his dealer hat — has ended up turning into what has been a decades-long career with Chevrolet, one where Penske has not only become a dealership mogul, but a titan in the racing business, as well.

Penske talked about this decision and more in the latest Faces of GM blog entry.

“I had to go Detroit, and Bunky Knudsen at that point was general manager of Chevrolet. He said, ’Roger, we’re not going to have race drivers as dealers, so you have to make a decision,” Penske explained of his 1965 experience.

“Are you going to be a race driver or a businessman?’ That’s probably the best advice I’ve ever had, because I decided no more racing – let’s become a dealer. That’s when I really started my career with Chevrolet, and I never turned back,” he continued.

Of course, Penske’s passion for Chevy had been ignited eight years before getting the store ownership offer when he bought his first Corvette, a 1957 competition model. Penske began racing and picking up wins.

In 1963, Penske met George McKean, a Philly Chevy dealer, and took him up on his offer to be the store’s general manager.

And then, Penske’s career as a racecar driver hit a crossroads two years later when McKean asked if he wanted to take over as owner.

Penske may have given up driving cars in races, but he didn’t drop the sport entirely.

He built a TransAm race team back in the 1960s, and racing legend Mark Donohue was his driver. By the end of the 1980s, Penske was part of an Indianapolis 500 championship.

GM president Lloyd Reuss had approached Penske about crafting an engine to compete in the famous race, and in 1988, they got their chance with driver Rick Mears steering the way to victory.

“The best moment I had with Chevrolet was winning that first one, the first Indy 500 with the Chevy motor with Rick Mears in 1988,” Penske said.

The Penske-Chevy combo won that day and captured other Indy 500 crowns, all part of 15 races it won during its IndyCar series tenure that eventually came to an end.

But things appear to be getting revved back up for Penske and IndyCar. His company and Chevy teamed up with Ilmor Engineering to build a new engine, which is currently undergoing testing. It will run in next year’s IZOD IndyCar series.

It’s just the latest in what been a decades-long relationship with Chevy that touches both the dealership and racing industries. In fact, he has had ties with Chevy for more than half of the brand’s existence.

“The brand is on the rise. I can see it with the cars that are available for us to sell in the showrooms. It’s never been better,” Penske said.

Looking forward, he added: “I can tell you my goal is to put that Chevy back in the winner’s circle.”

Penske Racing’s No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger may still be without a driver for the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, following the abrupt dismissal of Kurt Busch on Dec. 5, but the team has at least solidified its crew situation. Penske announced that Todd Gordon has been promoted to the crew chief role for the car. He replaces Steve Addington, who announced he was leaving Penske prior to Busch’s departure. Addington has since signed on with Stewart-Haas Racing as Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart’s new crew chief.

Gordon ran Brad Keselowski’s No. 22 NASCAR Nationwide Series car this year – his first with Penske – and the combo scored six wins and six pole positions.

“Our first priority is always to look within the walls of Penske Racing when making personnel decisions,” said Roger Penske. “We want to reward success. The path we are taking with Todd mirrors what we did with Paul Wolfe who led the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge to a Chase berth in 2011. We think Todd can get the job done in the same manner.”

Gordon joined Penske Racing in January of 2011. He and Keselowski quickly developed a driver-crew chief rapport that resulted in another successful season, helping make the No. 22 Dodge one of the premier entries in NNS competition.

“I can’t thank Roger and everyone at Penske Racing enough for this vote of confidence,” said Gordon. “It’s an honor to step into a race-winning team. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but this is an organization full of talented people who know how to get the job done. I look forward to getting the Shell/Pennzoil Dodge back in Victory Lane.”

The team said that it “continues to evaluate drivers to fill the seat” of the Shell/Pennzoil Dodge.

NASCAR fans all around the country are asking themselves, “Who will fill the void?” As Penske Racing is searching for their replacement candidate for the 2012 season, Penske Racing and NASCAR fans are anxiously anticipating who will be added to their stable of wonderful like Brad Keselowski, who has a fantastic future with Penske Racing, as he is just beginning to hit his stride.

Are all eyes on David Ragan, the currently seat-less driver out of Roush-Fenway Racing? Ragan captured two Coors Light Pole Awards and a win at Daytona International.

Another replacement being considered for the No. 22 Dodge is David Reutimann.

Another driver looking for employment is Brian Vickers. He has made the Chase and has one additional career-win than Ragan. Add to that, he has won a championship in the NASCAR Busch Grand National Series, what is now the Nationwide Series

Penske Racing is back into forming a solid stable for the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, with a tough decision ahead of them.

About Us

Penske Automotive Group is an international transportation services company that operates automotive and commercial truck dealerships principally in the United States, Canada and Western Europe, and distributes commercial vehicles, diesel engines, gas engines, power systems and related parts and services principally in Australia and New Zealand. PAG employs more than 23,000 people worldwide and is a member of the Fortune 500 and Russell 2000.